Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

Tag Archives: Photography


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Memorial poppies

A few days ago, on a beautiful blue sky, puffy white cloud afternoon, a photography friend and I went over to Fennville Michigan to see the poppy field. If you’re not from around here, and maybe even if you are, you might ask what poppy field?

There’s a special place in a tiny little town over on the west side of the state. It’s four acres of red poppies and blue bachelor buttons. Maybe that’s hard to image, so let me share a few of the images I took over the course of a couple magical hours.

We arrived around 5 p.m. and the light on the flowers was so beautiful. It was hard to capture the entire enormity of it.

As we stood, mesmerized, near the opening to the field I listened as more people arrived.

Each person stopped abruptly and then sighed or gasped. Voices lowered in respect and awe.

The awe is because the field is over the top beautiful. The respect came from the reason the field was planted in the first place. It was originally dedicated to a young man who served tours in Afghanistan, came home with PTSD, and took his own life.

The field is also dedicated to a young 19 year old woman who lost her battle to a rare form of cancer.

I looked up both stories after taking many photos of beautiful poppies up close and in masses. We were waiting for the sun to lower, hoping for a pretty sunset.

Meanwhile we wandered all the way around the field, looking for different angles, different colors.

Different shapes.

A lot of the time I wasn’t shooting. I was just walking and thinking about the young people this town lost, the heartbreak that planted these beautiful flowers.

I don’t know how many pictures of poppies I can cram into one blog post. I want you to see them all. But I took 309 images, and that’s a bit much. I think I edited 70 some, still too many.

I’ll just try to show you a representative few and hope that you can imagine the feeling.

By 9 p.m. or so the sun was lowering. The white puffy clouds were long gone but there were still interesting shapes in the sky. It wasn’t a big impressive sunset but when you looked through a camera lens it was pretty amazing.

I don’t think we could get a more perfect day to see this sweet field.

There’s a very narrow window to see the poppies. They begin to bloom around the middle of June and they’re done by the 4th of July. I feel very lucky that we got to see them at all.

And I hope you enjoyed seeing a tiny bit of a magical place. Think a bit about the two young people too, I think their families would appreciate knowing they are not lost in all the noise of today.

In a peaceful poppy field in a tiny town in rural Michigan their memories are strong. Even among those of us that never met them.


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By way of spreading joy

A week ago today I took three people to Kensington to feed the birds. They had never done that before but they’d heard about it and wanted to have the experience.

Hey, toss that peanut over here!

They had to drive almost 2 hours but they thought it was worth it. I do too. Though we arrived early in the morning, when the birds are most likely to be hungry, we weren’t inundated with begging feathered ones. But we had our fair share.

It rained all night and I’m not looking my best, but I sure am hungry!

Mostly it was the woodpeckers, in different varieties that were interested in us. Though an occasional red-winged blackbird stopped by.

I’m really interested in that peanut you have, could you toss it here?

And the bluejays were always nearby.

I’m faster than any darn woodpecker, just watch me!

In fact this visit turned into a ‘toss a peanut’ experience. The red-bellied and the red-headed woodpeckers and of course the bluejays are all very talented at plucking a tossed peanut out of the sky.

We spent much of our walk through the woods tossing peanuts into the air where they were eagerly snatched by a winged one.

Got it!

And of course we walked out onto the boardwalk to check on the blue heron rookery.

Ms. Red-winged was startled as we walked by.

The heron babies are now teenagers, testing their wings and making a great deal of noise whenever an adult ventures by. Just in case there might be breakfast arriving.

I can flap my wings faster than you. Oh will you two just settle down? I’m trying to nap here.

All in all, though we weren’t swarmed by birds I think everybody had a great time and I hope they come back for another adventure!

Thanks for the peanut! See ya next time!


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Looking for the lights

Last week a storm on the sun was predicted to send some major northern lights our way. A storm big enough to be seen even down here in southeast Michigan. But since there’s so much light down here, what with cities and towns all over, a friend and I decided we’d drive the three hours up to the tip of Michigan’s thumb and try our luck.

A misty evening looking out over Lake Huron.

When we arrived there was a kind of mist hanging over the lake. It was several hours until sunset, but we didn’t mind hanging out on the beach and waiting.

Waiting.

Or photograph the swans hanging out just up the beach.

Relaxing in the evening light.

But finally the sun began to set and we became hopeful.

Bye bye sun, sleep tight.

Maybe the night would be the night we’d dreamed of. We were ready.

As the sky darkened we could see two planets, Venus and Jupiter. They were the perfect “stars” to practice our camera focus as we waited for the light show to start.

The first ‘stars’ to appear.

We waited. We noticed clouds in a bank along the horizon and some in the sky. But aurora would look spectacular among the clouds. So we waited some more and practiced focusing on more stars.

Thousands of stars, and there would be more to see if it were truly dark.

As time passed the bank of clouds rolled across the lake toward us and we had to change our focus and practice on the stars directly above us where the sky was still clear.

Before the clouds covered it all up.

But by midnight the sky was completely clouded over and the light storm hadn’t yet hit earth. We decided to pack it up and head home. No amazing aurora. No milky way.

A pretty little beach at a roadside park.

Were we disappointed? Or course. But we had hours on the beach, little waves rolling up on the sand, and stars overhead. Sometimes you don’t get what you want, but you always get what you need when you head out into the night to photograph the sky.

Guaranteed.


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Hey!

Penny here. Guess what? Guess what, guess what, guess what?!!!

Mom accidentally found out that today is LUCKY PENNY DAY!

Wow! An entire day where the whole country celebrates ME!

Personally I always knew I was special but mom tried to keep the lid on it so to speak, so I didn’t get a big head. But she can’t hide my greatness anymore…why, there’s a day just for ME!

Oh. Wait. They’re talking about real pennies? The kind you find in parking lots? The kind they don’t even make anymore?

What the heck people!

I say we start a letter writing campaign to get me nominated to be the official LUCKY PENNY.

Geeze.

Talk later,

Your Lucky Penny (officially named Simply Unstoppable Pretty Penny, but I know I’m lucky too)


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Because you can’t have too many birds

A week ago I had the chance to go to Kensington, one of my favorite places in the world. It was a beautiful, sunny day.

You brought breakfast, right lady?

The birds weren’t crazy hungry and we weren’t overrun by little ones, but we had our fair share of visitors demanding a treat.

I’m not touching your hand, but I’ll clean up anything you drop.

My sister and I had been there before, a few years ago and she was used to having birds fly down to her hand, but it was still magical. It always is.

Excellent seed quality, lady!

Her friend had never been there before so this was a new experience. He figured out that he could toss a peanut up in the air and the red bellied woodpeckers and the blue jays would both fly out from the trees and catch that peanut in the air.

Toss that peanut, Mr!

They were successful grabbing the nut about 99% of the time.

I can get that peanut faster than you two!

He also got an up close and personal viewing of several sandhill cranes. We didn’t feed them, but they were hopeful and followed us around on the trail.

What you lookin at?

The heron rookery was full of expectant parents. Though I’m sure there are eggs or maybe even youngsters up in those big nests we couldn’t see any yet.

Everybody is waiting.

Ms. Swan built her nest very near the boardwalk this year. I’m sure every photographer has a great image of mom waiting patiently on her nest. By this week there could be babies and the usual paparazzi shooting baby pictures.

Big stretch while on the job.

I doubt I’ll get out there again soon, but I sure enjoyed my spring walk with family through such a beautiful place. I hope you enjoyed these images too.

Singing oriole overhead.